[1] The film is set in the Casa Rossa displaced persons concentration camp in Alberobello, Apulia, after the Second World War.

It shows what happened soon after the war to many women of different nationalities, coming into Italy from other parts of Europe, hoping to be repatriated or accepted by some other country.

Anna Petrovic (Valentina Cortese) is a young widow from Yugoslavia, locked up in the camp and expecting a child.

Janka Nowotska (Irasema Dilian) is a Pole who was working in a German brothel and has lost her mind.

Hilda von Schwartzendorf (Vivi Gioi) is a German woman doctor, and there are also British women.